As part of our Forgotten Gems series, [URL='http://rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=173']Darth Roxor takes a look[/URL] at the old classic Betrayal at Krondor:
[INDENT]As I said before, the game is mostly based around exploration. The world really is huge, and the goodies hidden throughout the map are worth the effort. By venturing too far from the road, you might find chests with basic supplies like food rations, torches, whetstones or herbal packs that speed up the healing rate while resting, or maybe powerful potions that drastically boost your statistics, or simply a new sword or a set of armour if you are not satisfied with your current one. Normal chests can be either harmless, or locked, or trapped, or both. Many traps are lethal, and they can be ‘sensed’ only through a spell, so if you stumble upon such, but you are not quite confident about your lockpicking skill, it’s just better to let it be. Apart from these ‘normal’ chests, there are also Moredhel chests which have a wordlock upon them. When using such a chest, you are presented a riddle, and a few slides with letters. To open the chest, you must make the slides show the password (some of the riddles are [B]really[/B] hard, believe me).[/INDENT]
[URL='http://rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=173']Check the rest here[/URL].

... and it doesn't end there. BioShock also uses audio superbly as well. Beyond the audio diaries, the monsters you're fighting often have conversations with each other before they realise you're there. Then when they attack, they're using phrases that relate to the game-world rather. As you walk passed the in-game vending machines, they kick into life and start playing a cheery song. Video screens will display short movies as you walk by on occassion and some rooms even have speakers with audio advertising. As you find and collect Plasmids (the game's "magic spells"), you're shown a short video. Again, it's simple stuff but it makes you want to listen to the world and think about what you're hearing for at least a while before you go ahead and blow the next monster's brains out.

We asked Vince D. of Iron Tower Studios a few questions about founding your own indie game studio. Here's a piece:

I've started with the setting, main story overview, and major design elements (character system, combat, multiple ways to handle quests, non-linearity, etc). I didn't do all the quests or ways to solve them, of course. I'm talking about the concept phase here. For example, one way to keep the main quest non-linear is to have multiple factions interested in it. These factions shouldn't want the same thing as that would make your choice of a faction less important. So, they should want different things which would give you different reasons to pursue the main quest and would require you to make very different decisions once you are at the end of your journey. At the same time you can't be sent to several different directions at once, so your final destination should be able to offer and support different outcomes, etc. In other words, you develop the frame of a game first and then fill it in with the actual content.

Basilisk Games are newcomers to the indie RPG development field and their debut title, Eschalon: Book One, shows a lot of promise - if you like games with a definite oldschool feel. It's far from perfect, though. Read our review to learn our thoughts on the game.
Read the full article: [URL='http://www.rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=170']Eschalon Review[/URL]

Since 2007 marked a definite upswing in the prevailing hivemind opinion on the state of PC CRPG's (apart from The Sequel That Shall Not Be Named, of course), we have a look at what to expect from 2008.

We got a hold of Maciej Prósiński, lead designer of the Polish post-apoc indie RPG Afterfall, and asked him a few questions on it. Here's a bit on solutions to quests to make your mouth water:

Quests will have many solutions, most of which will only be available to a player character with specific skills. Thanks to the plot bypasses you will often come upon completely alternative solutions, for example, to convince someone to help you, you will use acquaintance with some important characters. It is worth to mention that certain choices in performing a quest will bear various, sometimes long-term consequences. Some of the suggested paths may also prove to be dead-ends.
As for the endings, we have adapted for ourselves the brilliant, but for an unknown reason never repeated solution from Fallout – the modular epilogue. After finishing the game and watching the outro presenting the consequence of the path you have chosen, you will also be able to see the fate of the world and its individual locations which you have influenced by your actions or non-action.

Another year is drawing to a close, and unfortunately, Prince hasn't put his lyrical mind toward partying like it's 2007. So instead, I've opted to don stockings, banana hammock, scarf and midriff jacket and get the job done myself with the official RPG Codex Year in Review 2007 Platinum GOTY Edition. Pre-order now for a signed photo of me in said stockings, banana hammock, scarf and midriff jacket!

Cardtrick sent in this review of The Witcher, explaining why exactly this game is a worthy addition to any CRPG fan's collection:
[INDENT]The Witcher is one of the first games . . . well, ever . . . to actively hype its choices and consequences. This alone should make it interesting to the average Codex reader. The basic idea, in case you've been living under a rock (or, you know, have a life outside of games) is that The Witcher presents you with choices during the course of the game without clear answers. Only much later in the game do you discover the consequences of your decisions, which can have significant impact on the plot.[/INDENT]
Read the full article: [URL='http://www.rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=165']The Witcher Review[/URL]

JarlFrank reviews this '99 gem. Although a first glance might make you suspect this is a management strategy game, JarlFrank has no problem claiming this is, in fact, a genre-bender with such a large dose of the RPG design elements we all love that it belongs in our review repertoire and that you should play this game. Read his short & sweet review to find out why.
Read the full article: [URL='http://www.rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=163']Forgotten Gems: King of Dragon Pass quickie review[/URL]

I decided to try something different and instead of asking 10-15 unconnected questions, I asked Jason Compton, the lead designer of The Broken Hourglass only 3 questions, but studied his answers under a microscope.

The difference is, dungeons tend to be more a bit exciting than storefronts and residences. Anyway, what do you have in the urban dungeon department? Discovering a well hidden, ancient door in some basement leading into unknown darkness somehow sounds more exciting then discovering a cave in the middle of nowhere, so tell us all about it.

There are three sequences in the main game which could be considered "urban dungeons." One is the old caverns beneath the Arena, where forgotten rubbish—and the occasional forgotten monster—is discarded. Another is an ancient tomb, cracked open by diggers hoping to tunnel their way out of the city. The creator of the tomb is still down there, so you can ask him all about how it was built, if you don't mind the smell. The third is a sequence which takes the player through a long-forgotten and roundabout path between two city districts, including a trip through the buried catacombs and a sewer system. The endgame also has aspects of "urban dungeon." All three certainly have their share of combat challenges, but the tomb and the catacombs sequences in particular are much more of a balanced adventure than a monster-bashing crawl.

7) The game promises choices and "huge consequences." An actual example would go a long way to back up these claims and fill the hearts of unbelievers with faith.

Luke: I’m sure it would, but I wouldn’t want to spoil too much of the experience for players. Let’s just say that I know the depths of loathing loyal Codex readers reserve for developers that talk the talk but fail to meet expectations when it comes to choice and consequences. I’m not only walking but swaggering, and not just because I’m drunk.

Alan: I will echo Luke on this one, in that we definitely do provide some big choices with significant consequences to the player. We made a conscious decision when writing the core story during pre-production to allow for branches in the story instead of a single linear path. The challenge was to make the different branches as polished as if we had just made one route, since polishing a single linear path would take only half the time. Revealing what these choices are would ruin the story, so you’ll just have to keep the faith.

5. What would you have done differently given a choice? Also, what are you best and worst DoP design decisions?

Looking back on the project, I would probably say something I would do differently is bringing in artists a bit earlier in the project. This turned out fine in the end, but finding artists and getting good progress on the artwork was pretty stressful for me during a lot of the project.

I think the best design decision of the project was including the covenant gameplay. Not only is this one of the biggest distinguishing features of Depths of Peril, but it is also the feature that led to other important unique things in the game like consequences to your actions and the very dynamic world. The covenants is one of those features that changes just about everything in the game. They adventure in the world, they can solve quests before you do, they start wars and raid other covenants including yours, they help out when the town is attacked, they can grab recruits before you do, guards, rumors, and crystals all are due to the covenant gameplay, they can destroy your covenant, and the list just goes on and on.

My [URL='http://www.rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=159']thoughts[/URL] about Mask of the Betrayer:
[INDENT]That’s where the game starts to shine so brightly that you completely forget about any flaws the game has and get lost in a well crafted gameworld. It’s like a dream come true – a non-linear game loaded with well-written dialogues, interesting quests, more choices than you can handle, and enough consequences and to make the game highly replayable. It’s hard to imagine a better feature list.
I can't stress it enough. The choices are everywhere. There are plenty of consequences. What you did may even cost party members their lives. Many characters respond to and recognize your choices, commenting on what you did and affecting your gameplay. I couldn't believe how many opportunities to do things differently the game offers.[/INDENT]
[URL='http://www.rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=159']Click here to read the rest[/URL]

Let's look at the preview practices of the gaming media, using Loki as an example. Loki is yet another "epic" action RPG, yet another attempt to capitalize on Diablo 2 success, yet another spectacular failure. Reviews tore apart the game's weak mechanics and dull gameplay, describing it as "less entertaining than watching someone else watch TV", but hands-on previews showed complete ignorance of Loki's numerous faults. Why? Because to journalists these faults, according to Patrick the GameSpy journalist, weren't "even real".

We present you our Fallout 3 preview. It contains nothing but facts and specific statements from developers and media. We'll continue updating the article, adding new facts as they became available, until the game is released, so drop by every now and then to see what's new and exciting.

You're no longer alone in the harsh, post-apocalyptic world. You have a father and not just any father. He's a scholar and a gentleman - voiced by Liam Neeson!!! - and you just can't live without him. Your love for your father is so strong that when he leaves you and the vault one day, you blindly follow him into the wasteland.

Just when you thought it was safe to read the Codex, Role-Player blinds us with yet another long-winded arrgh!ticle about computer role-playing games based on his industry expertise as a couch potato. This time, the infidel demands we lay down our weapons against the maintream invaders and sell our babies into slavery! Oh, and there's some words in there too:

Unlike physical stats, which can be fitted into the system through much more meaningful ways even if they can succumb to the same issues, social stats like Intelligence and Charisma cause more problems than those they set out to solve for a very simple reason. You can not force players to role-play their stats, and you canâ€™t force those stats to help players role-play. This dredges up an earlier point â€“ the absence of a direct mental link between player and character ends up rendering the adherence to social stats trite and ineffective. In the long run, the impact of mental and social stats that limit a characterâ€™s progress becomes either negligible or a hassle since you can not code personality traits the player does not have the ability to play nor can you give gamers a personality trait they have no idea of how to role-play. And in terms of how storylines are advanced, this causes a great rift as well considering many times players can see right through plot twists or narrative directions before the characters do.

With that said... Get rid of Intelligence and Charisma as a play mechanic that influences dialogue.

Awarding his "ideas" with 2 out of 5 Goatses just doesn't cut it anymore. For the good of the people, Role-Player must be stopped!

Many moons ago I asked Chris to answer a few questions for our [URL='http://www.rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=148']dialogue interview[/URL]. Chris was too busy at that time, but promised to do it in the future. Unfortunately, he lost the questions, but being too proud to admit that, he wrote a [URL='http://www.rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=154']monologue about dialogues[/URL] instead.
[INDENT]As a "twist," I’m going to do this interview primarily through visuals, which is how I think game interactions should be in the first place - mostly because a good chunk of human dialogue is essentially communicated non-verbally anyway.[/INDENT]